Mercedes Brown Outstanding Alumni Award – Professional Achievement General Studies Arts & Science – Natural Sciences diploma (1993) Calgary Conjoint Nursing Program (1995)
Now an experienced Calgarian with nearly three decades worth of winters under her belt, Mercedes Brown’s introduction to this city was a bit of a shock to the system. She arrived in Calgary from Jamaica as a 19-year-old international student on Aug. 28, 1984, beginning classes at Mount Royal right away. Because she was unfamiliar with the registration system, her first semester consisted of mainly 8 a.m. courses, which left her shivering at the bus stop while she adjusted to her chilly new surroundings. Constantly toiling on two or three life goals at once, Brown describes her resume as “flowing.” Intermingling education and practical work experience, Brown briefly suspended her studies at Mount Royal to complete a medical secretarial course, starting her first hospital administration position at the Colonel Belcher Hospital (now known as the Carewest Colonel Belcher Care Centre) in 1989. This year she celebrated 25 years with Alberta Health Services. “My grandmother once told me, whatever you learn, you never know how you will use that knowledge,” she says. While at the Belcher, Brown returned to Mount Royal part-time to complete her General Studies Arts & Science – Natural Sciences diploma in 1993. She began the Calgary Conjoint Nursing Program (CCNP) in 1995, a collaboration between Mount Royal, the Foothills Hospital School of Nursing and the University of Calgary while continuing to perform various roles at Calgary’s hospitals (she received her nursing degree from U of C in 1999). In 2002 Brown obtained specialized certification as an Enterstomal Therapy Clinician Specialist and currently works with diversion patients at the Rockyview General Hospital. She meets with them before surgery, explains procedures, observes their access to resources and then follows through after until they are back home in the community. She says she tries to use each person’s experiences and stories to help others. “When I nurse, I nurse the person. The individual,” she says. “We have the science behind medicine, but the art part comes with listening.” After returning to post-secondary for what she says will be her final time, Brown completed her Masters of Nursing at the University of Calgary in 2010. She currently provides the same sort of leadership and training to Mount Royal nursing students that she received from like mentors, and she is looking forward to being able to teach more in the future.
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SUMMIT – FALL 2014